The End - Maybe

Friends,

Art and I are busy winding down our last days here at Holden Village. We have so much to do to get ready to leave and many, many hikes and visits with friends that we making time for as we conclude our year.

Our hearts are full of mixed feelings on all levels. We want to stay longer and we want to get back home. None of this fits in a blog for those who read of our experience. We ache and are excited at the very same time.

I am not sure if I will continue this blog or not when we get back to Ellensburg. This is the turning point for those of you who are wanting a window into the life and fun at Holden Village. Many of you have shared with me your reading of this blog from home. I never knew who was reading, so your comments shared, both online and in person, really made a difference in our lives.

If I do continue on, it will be about our lives where ever we are. For now that will be in Ellensburg with periodic trips to Holden as we continue on as "Holden Angels". We are interested in possibly coming back in a few years during the mine remediation, but right now there are so many unknowns with that process.

I say good bye to those of you who are Holdenites. I will encourage others to blog so you can follow village life. To those who hang in with us during our transition, thanks. We will see where life takes us.

I know that some of you might like to experience a year at Holden as well. What I have offered here has been the highlights of a fun and fulfilling year. The reality of living here is somewhat different than the view I offered. We have worked very, very hard here; often with no days off. Keeping a village going 24/7 means giving up both your personal time and space. Living here is not for the faint of faith nor heart. Ten percent of those who made a year commitment this year did not make it for one reason or another. All that said, it felt wonderful to work hard, eat fantastic food, laugh hard and sleep like I never have before. My body loves this life. I just hope that I can find the proper balance when I am back home.

Pray for us and our transition.

Thanks, love and blessings to you all

Joan and Art Neslund

Huckleberries

Today is Art's birthday and we decided to spend the afternoon Huckleberry picking. Last year the berries were very poor and the bears were in the village every day foraging for food, but this year is a banner year for berries. We found more than we could pick within a half mile of the village.

The weather this week was rainy, a nice break from the heat of last week. Everything was washed clean.

We picked about a quart in all and then headed back to the village for ice cream. Fresh picked berries on ice cream, yum!!

Staff Social and a Birthday

Each Friday evening in the summer the Holden staff has a social event. Each chalet takes turns hosting the even. Last night's even was also Paul H.'s, one of Holden's directors, 60th birthday so we had a Sixties theme to our social.

Paul insisted on making his famous chocolate sauce and serving it on the equally famous Holden ice cream.

Even the kids got into the theme of hippies and the sixties.

So much of the music of the Sixties lives on in our heads and in the music of younger generations. We all sang songs and relived the grand moments of my generation.

A Double Bed

Each night Art and I cuddle up in a double bed. When we first arrived, I thought, "no way, I need my queen", but soon I discovered that there really is no difference and with these wonderful bamboo sheets, I am more comfortable than I was at home. We have two rooms and a bathroom here and I am not sure we really would ever need anything more. Space is what you make of it and we hope to fill our living room at home with more wonderful people and memories.

We leave three weeks from today and truth be told, I am ready to move back home. Both Art and I gave Holden Village all that we had and we are tired. I just finished a three hour dish team and Art is doing his now. Summer has been hot and buggy and those mountains we wanted to roam in will just have to wait till we come back with more energy.

That said, we have had a wonderful year!! Seeing my husband several times during the day after only of seeing him after a long work day for years, has been fantastic. We take breaks together and find each other when ever we feel like it. This has been a transition year for us and we have discovered and learned a lot.

We came to Holden to give all we could to a place that we both loved so very much. We wanted to work hard and help others enjoy this mountain retreat. We have met many wonderful people and really connected with the young people of the village. I am not sure how the next 20-something in Ellensburg will react when I walk up and say, "hi, want to hang out?"

Living this close to nature was truly the most special gift of all. Mountains and birds, snow and mist, bear and owls, chipmunks and deer, flowers and wild berries; this will be where my pain will be when I am gone. I find my heart is at home here and my soul loves the primitive and natural beauty.

Nursery School

Tonight Art came running up the stairs yelling "get your camera, the babies are out". Of course, I can not resist, but this time we had three does and four fawns right outside the back door.There seemed to be two mothers, both with twin fawns and another doe feeding on the clover. You can see by the color which two go with eachother.

I am sure that they all had met before but we felt like we were holding nursery school off our porch.

Even the chipmunks came out to see.

The drew quite a crowd from the village. Many spectators just sat on the grass and watched.

Finally the mothers strolled away, each taking their two. The only one left was the single doe.

The Village Center

Summer is busy and brief here at Holden. We wait all year to open up the village to a full service status for hundreds of guests and in less than three months it is over. The Village Center is a huge building right in the middle of Holden's main street. This building houses the bowling alley, the snack bar, the "Lift" (a late night music place) and a huge gymnasium area that we now use for our evening worship.In 1976 the white ceiling of the gym was deemed to not be suitable for what went on inside, so an artist maned Richard Caemmerer drew up a sketch of the painting that you can see in these pictures. He tried to capture the four seasons of mountain community in this wildly painted diorama.

My children grew up drifting off to sleep during worship gazing on this brightly painted scene. We worship here only in the summer and then winter retakes the building into its cold essence once again. Summer at Holden in the VC.

Prayer Around the Cross

Worship each and every Friday evening at Holden is the same, Prayer Around the Cross. This simple service of candle light and chanting hymns from Taize, a religious center in France, becomes the foundation of who we are here at Holden. As much as we love to try new and creative ways to worship, this service varies very little.

We enter the dark room in silence and sing simple chants as we wait for the candles to be lit. Around the cross are bowls and boxes filled with sand. We may pray in solitude at a box or if we choose to kneel at a bowls, we will be joined by others who will pray with us. Often a child will mistakenly kneel at a bowl and is very surprised when four or five people come and pray with them.

Most of us, as we live our lives, wear masks of happiness and contentment. This service is a place where the turmoil can spill out and we can unburden ourselves of pain. All of this is done in silence but the power of human touch can ease the heaviest of burdens.

I Can't Stop Taking These Pictures

Each evening the deer are outside my back door grazing on the clover and each and every time, I run upstairs for my camera to take pictures. The beauty of living this close to nature is both common place and awe inspiring. Knowing that this year is almost over and that I will never again (well maybe) live this close to so many living species, I feel compelled to document each siting.

Three mother does are now socializing their fawns with the village. The mothers used to leave their babies in the woods while the grazed the village lawns, but now they come along to experience the open spaces and the people who live here.

I know that this familiarity with humans has changed the deer living in the forest here. Most are very comfortable with us and we pass within feet every day. Whether this is a healthy thing, I do not know, but I do know that it is very humbling to live this close to another species.

A Warm Summer Evening with Aubrey